CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE FESTIVAL HERE.

Bright blue skies, bright green grass and a glistening sun admiring the view from the top set the scene at Toyota Stadium. Today, however, the Shire folk were not gathered to the field to see their beloved Sharks team in action. Rather, the community today came together to play spectator to some of our country’s most beloved live acts, mixed in with a healthy dose of some fine up-and-comers as well.

Today was A Day at the Park, and as generic as the term “nice” really might seem, it was difficult to find a more appropriate tag for the environment in which we found ourselves.

Thanks to a late-running charter bus, the opening slots given to local acts were, unfortunately, missed out on. Luckily, Cronulla locals Dead Letter Chorus were just about to take to the stage. The five-piece gave the sprawled-out crowd a taste of their understated, delectable and effortlessly charming folk-pop with great precision and airtight musicianship. Scruffy-haired Cameron Potts shared the limelight with pixie-sized Gabrielle Huber, as the two swapped around guitars, keyboards, microphones and tambourines.

Showcasing mostly from their debut, 2008’s The August Magnificent, the band brought a smile to the face with their upbeat numbers and a chill to the spine with their slower tracks that brought the gorgeous four-part harmonies to the front. A well-timed and thoroughly enjoyable set, resulting in a wonderful way to begin the day.

How strange a change from one stage to another makes – whilst Dead Letter were more than happy to let people enjoy the show sitting around, Sydney synth-pop kids Amy Meredith were having none of it. “I know you’re all comfortable,” panted irrepressible frontman Christian, “but come and have a fucken dance!” Sure enough, a good number of people took him up on the offer as the band powered on through selections from their Robert Smith-loving, eighties-worshipping and always danceable discography.

New single Pornstar went down a treat live, as did finishing number Black Eyes. Having just been announced as the national opener of Cobra Starship’s Australian tour, you get the feeling that Amy Meredith are on the brink of finally hanging ten on that wave they’ve been riding. Watch this space.

After a short changeover (and reports from the south that Black Rose had attempted a John Farnham cover), cool kids Red Riders slunk onto the stage and had a bit of fun – with a bunch of people still in a dancing mood from Amy’s set following on into this one. Wafer-thin frontman Alex Grigg awkwardly chopped at his guitar, enacted lyrics with his hand movements and mumbled about how his double denim choice seemed foolish in retrospect, given the heat.

His charm worked well with the music itself. Tracks from their debut, Replica Replica, such as My Love is Stronger than Your Love and Slide in Next to Me held up considerably well in their Adrian Deutsch-less reinterpretations. Meanwhile, tracks from the band’s follow-up, Drown in Colour, sounded even better live than on record – Feels Like Grace, You’ve Got a Lot of Nerve and Ordinary especially packing punch and picking up on a stronger, on-the-fly energy. It’s definitely good to have this lot back on the live circuit; well worth a look-into this coming festival season.

“I used to be on Countdown, y’know!” That bellowed, overly-eccentric voice coming from the speakers…it could only be Richard Clapton. The 59-year-old and his tight backing band were running through a number of seventies hits on the main stage such as Girls on the Avenue, Down in the Lucky Country and Deep Water. It wasn’t an overly inspiring feat, by any means; but it was still very easily likable. The baby-boomers and parents in the crowd were all enjoying themselves a great deal, boogying down shamelessly and attempting to get the kids to do the same.

Meanwhile, Bondi’s reggae veterans King Tide were bopping up a storm in the garden. Let’s ignore how bizarre it is to see two balding, middle-aged white men singing about rude boys in Jamaican accents – King Tide are a killer live band. The eight-piece crowded onto the considerably smaller stage and pumped out a string of tight, funky rhythms for us all to get down to. Right on.

What’s new in the world of Kate Miller-Heidke? Well, since her last major tour, a new bassist – no word on what’s happened to Ben McCarthy, but the newbie fills in the gaps seamlessly during the band’s set today. Additionally, KMH has her biggest hit single yet on her hands – Last Day on Earth naturally gets one of the biggest cheers of the day, as young and old sing along right down to every last “ye-ay yeahhh” with rapturous delight.

This aside, however, there really wasn’t anything new for people who’ve seen Ms. Miller-Heidke within the past twelve months. They still break into Killing in the Name Of during Words, she still says “I love you!” in her monster voice during Dreams, and both Kate and gorgeous acoustic guitarist Nicole Brophy work their way through an unashamedly daggy dance routine on closer Can’t Shake It. It’s very entertaining, and the kids up the front were all having a ball. However, when the only thing new about your set is a bassist, it’s really time to change things up a little.

Back once again to the Garden stage and blues-rock power trio The Vasco Era were shredding it up in the heat. The band put on one of the most refreshing sets of the entire day, laying down a collection of husky jams, filthy slide guitar licks and some of the most crazed, guttural howls in Australian music. The volatile, thrashing energy coming from the stage (at times, worrying that bassist Ted O’Neil was going to severely injure himself) was reciprocated very easily by the crowd, who all clambered up on stage for the big finale. With a new record, Lucille, due out next year, you can be certain that this unstoppable force aren’t going to be hitting any immovable objects any time soon.

“Do you know who’s on next, mate?” a punter near the main stage asks. When he’s greeted with the response of You Am I, he looks down at his beers as if they’re his new-born twin children. “Beautiful,” he says. “I’ve come just in time!”

Indeed, it was beer o’clock for many as Tim Rogers and co. took time out from their four-night-stand at the Annandale to play some rock & roll for those not fortunate enough to have tickets. Along with some Rogers gold in the onstage banter (“You ladies call me hot one more time, I’ll come around and fuck your boyfriend!”), we all got to hear Rumble, Mr. Milk and a rocked-out Heavy Heart. Could you ask for more from these guys? No matter how many times you see Tim, Davey, Andy and Rusty in action, you’ll always find yourself catching a quality set.

Fresh off the plane from London, you could forgive Bertie Blackman for being at least a little tired and jetlagged. “I probably should be resting,” she confessed in-between sips of her water. She wasn’t going to let it stop her from putting on one of the day’s best performances, however. Not by a long shot.

With her three-piece band in tow, Blackman swayed around with her guitar for the beautiful Shout Out and Sky is Falling, and leapt around like a hyperactive red cordial kid without it during a funky reworking of White Owl and a now-customary cover of Phil Collin’s In the Air Tonight. The sweaty, primal energy of her Parklife appearance wasn’t at the Park today, but what we got was more than sufficient anyway.

Over in the main arena, The Beautiful Girls had twice as many people doing their reggae grooves than King Tide did. Sadly, however, they were twice as boring – not even the kick of a horns section could conceal the obvious fact that the core trio of the band both looked and sounded like they would much rather be elsewhere.

Thankfully, a return to the glorious Garden one more time gave way to an artist who wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else in the world – Ash Grunwald. Grunwald’s live experience is quite different to his shows a few years ago. Two other musicians now join him onstage, complete with both custom and traditional percussion, as well as samples and a drum machine. This wasn’t a case of too many cooks, however – if anything, the trio made the capacity crowd want to dance even more.

While Ash didn’t have the filthiness in his blues that his mates in the Vasco Era did, he still had plenty of funk and grit to his renowned style of performance – and his slide guitar work is still second-to-none. Skywriter proved to be an early crowd-starter, but it wasn’t until the medley of Fish Out of Water tracks Money and Breakout that things really heated up, and it became clear that Ash had secured himself easily the most energetic and excitable crowd of the day. Wrapping up with Give Signs and Serious from his second record, Give Signs, Ash proved why he’s one of the hardest-working musicians in the country – and just why he keeps getting more and more work.

Perhaps it was because of this heated-up blues energy that made the Hoodoo Gurus seem tame. Make no mistake, it was great to see the band again and hearing news of a new album was both surprising and exciting – especially when some new material was played. Given the music just seen, however, the Gurus dragged the chain a little in parts. Maybe it was just more unfortunate timing – let’s not forget the band was completely blown off the stage by Radio Birdman on their last tour in 2007.

Still, it’s always great to hear hits like 1,000 Miles, Come Anytime, What’s My Scene and even My Girl being pulled out for an en-masse sing-along. These are some of the essential Australian pop songs, the kind that have helped define a part of our modern music history – and for that alone, the Gurus deserve a bit of credit. Maybe they would have sounded better straight after the Beautiful Girls – who knows?

A Day in the Park was, ultimately, a great idea. Around fifteen bands for under $100, a gorgeous setting, even some half-decent sound. Let’s hope the community continues to support this fun, all-ages-friendly day out and it’s kept going for some time to come.